Zoning Officials

The party's over. So say city zoning officials, who are cracking down on tailgate parties before Ravens home games in neighborhoods around PSINet Stadium. After complaints from community leaders, officials have shut down two of the largest tailgate parties, angering fans and event organizers, including one who says he will defy the order Sept. 10, the date of the Ravens' home opener. "I am going to fight and do whatever it takes to continue, even if they fine me every week," said Dave Rather, owner of Mother's Federal Hill Grille, which was fined $500 by Department of Housing and Community Development inspectors.

A task force targeting makeshift used-car lots is taking its first steps toward devising strategies to quash the illegal sales while continuing a crackdown on the lots. The fledgling group of Anne Arundel County and state officials and legitimate automobile dealers is preparing complaint forms for dealers and community groups to help identify lot locations and cars while looking at the possibility of changes in the law. It is also working on making consumers aware through a mix of police and zoning action and buyer education.

The growing drive to improve the U.S. 1 corridor in Howard County has received a significant boost, with County Executive James N. Robey directing county officials to make it a priority.Joseph W. Rutter Jr., county planning and zoning chief, said Robey has asked him to develop a long-term plan."Jim Robey was very clear about making Route 1 a priority," Rutter said. "He told me that I will be doing a Route 1 plan, and we're going to get it done."Robey made no announcement of his intentions and has not returned calls seeking comment.

Harry Millstein knows his flowers.The owner of Greta's Gardens in Elkridge knows that cauliflower and broccoli seeds planted in the fall can withstand Maryland winters. He knows that pansies thrive during the spring and fall and must be kept in the shade during the summer.Millstein also knows that marigolds and petunias need sunlight and that if he moves them to a covered porch in front of his nursery as Howard County zoning officials have ordered him to do, the annuals -- and his business -- will perish.

The fight to restrict adult businesses in Howard County is getting personal.Nathaniel Lightfoot Inc., which operates Adult Video & Books in the 7400 block of U.S. 1 in Elkridge, has filed a lawsuit in Howard County Circuit Court that accuses William F. O'Brien of abusing his role as chief of comprehensive planning and zoning for the county Department of Planning and Zoning.The suit, filed Feb. 4, alleges that O'Brien tried "to put the Plaintiff out of business in order to suppress free speech."

Tied on fences, stapled to poles, propped atop pumps and plastered on walls, cigarette posters and banners grow like kudzu at many gas stations and convenience stores.The signs are evidently effective, because such shops account for the majority of cigarette sales in the United States, tobacco companies say. And with the Marlboro Man and his cigarette-selling sidekicks scheduled to be booted off billboards and taxis in April under the states' tobacco settlement, such signs will soon become the most visible remaining outdoor tobacco advertising.

Planes but not gliders will fly again at Woodbine Airfield.The county's longest zoning battle -- which has dragged through six presidencies, numerous attorneys and weeks of testimony -- ended another round yesterday with the Board of Zoning Appeals granting Michael R. Harrison permission to run an airport on his South Carroll farm.Since the 1970s, neighbors of the grass airstrip northeast of Mount Airy have fought to close the airfield, noting numerous fatalities and accidents involving sky-diving, gliders and aircraft.

Under different circumstances, Bernard A. Schwartz has no doubt that he could have been a friend to his neighbor, Michael R. Harrison.They both enjoy adventure, Schwartz says. He's an avid scuba diver; Harrison is a longtime pilot. They are both active in the 4-H Club. And for 25 years, they have lived just 500 yards apart.But that distance might as well have been 500 miles.For more than two decades, the men have been on opposite sides of a zoning dispute that has dragged on through six presidencies, countless attorneys and well into their middle-age years.

Woodbine residents opposed to reopening a glider port in their neighborhood will have to wait until next month to tell their story to the Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals.But a 21-day delay is no big deal for people who have been fighting glider port operations at the Woodbine airfield for two decades.The land in the dispute is Michael R. Harrison's farm on Gillis Falls Road. Although opponents did not testify at yesterday's six-hour hearing, real estate appraiser James H. Dulany IV gave the board a preview of the testimony expected Sept.